Spring Boot REST API disable Form Login redirect - spring-boot

Question

I have been banging my head against the wall for hours trying to figure out something that I would expect to work out of the box these days.
I am building an API with Spring Boot backend and I will create a react front end.
I only have one server so I dont need to use tokens. I want the same normal server side sessions and cookies.
I managed to get the Authentication to work but for some reason it keeps redirecting after success to the default / endpoint.
I really do not want this to happen and can't figure out why this is the case. I also can't find any decent resources on the internet of people that have encountered this issue.
I have seen a few videos where I have seen people handling the login in a Rest Controller end point rather than using filters. I assume this could work but then how would I implement session management?
Here is the code so far:
#Configuration
#EnableWebSecurity
public class WebSecurity extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {
#Autowired
private AuthUserService authUserService;
#Override
protected void configure(AuthenticationManagerBuilder auth) throws Exception {
auth.userDetailsService(authUserService);
}
#Bean
public CorsConfigurationSource corsConfigurationSource(){
CorsConfiguration corsConfiguration = new CorsConfiguration();
corsConfiguration.setAllowedOrigins(Arrays.asList("http://localhost:3000"));
corsConfiguration.setAllowedMethods(Arrays.asList("GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "OPTIONS"));
UrlBasedCorsConfigurationSource source = new UrlBasedCorsConfigurationSource();
source.registerCorsConfiguration("/**", corsConfiguration);
return source;
}
#Override
protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
http.authorizeRequests()
.mvcMatchers("/api/**").hasRole("AUTH_USER")
.mvcMatchers("/**").permitAll();
http.cors();
http.addFilterAfter(new CsrfHandlerFilter(), CsrfFilter.class);
AuthenticationFilter filter = new AuthenticationFilter();
filter.setAuthenticationManager(authenticationManager());
http.addFilterAt(filter, UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter.class);
}
#Bean
public PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder() {
return NoOpPasswordEncoder.getInstance();
}
}
Authentication Filter:
public class AuthenticationFilter extends UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter {
public AuthenticationFilter(){
super.setRequiresAuthenticationRequestMatcher(new AntPathRequestMatcher("/login", "POST"));
}
#Override
public Authentication attemptAuthentication(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws AuthenticationException {
System.out.println("Custom Authentication Filter fired!");
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
Login login = new Login();
try {
login = mapper.readValue(request.getInputStream(), Login.class);
} catch (StreamReadException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (DatabindException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken token = new UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken(
login.getUsername(),
login.getPassword()
);
return this.getAuthenticationManager().authenticate(token);
}
}
Login Model class:
#Getter
#Setter
#NoArgsConstructor
#AllArgsConstructor
public class Login {
private String username;
private String password;
}
I want a normal server side session. I am not using JWT just because it is a JavaScript client. But all I want is for it to not redirect. Is this possible?
Any advice would be appreciated

Answer 1

There are a few ways to approach this, depending on your preference.
Certainly, you can stand up your own Spring MVC endpoint and set the SecurityContext yourself. Spring Security's SecurityContextPersistenceFilter will store the SecurityContext in an HttpSessionSecurityContextRepository by default, which induces the container to write a JSESSIONID session cookie that can be used on subsequent requests.
The main reason to go this route is if you want to have access to the MVC feature set when writing this endpoint.
One downside of this route is that Spring Security 6 will no longer save the security context for you when it comes to custom MVC endpoints, so you would need to be aware of that when upgrading.
HTTP Basic
That said, it doesn't seem like your requirements are so sophisticated that you can't use Spring Security's OOTB behavior.
One way to do this is with HTTP Basic. Note that for simplicity, I'll publish the SecurityFilterChain as a #Bean instead of using the now-deprecated WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter:
#Bean
SecurityFilterChain web(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
http
.authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
.mvcMatchers("/api/**").hasRole("AUTH_USER")
.mvcMatchers("/**").permitAll()
)
.httpBasic(Customizer.withDefaults())
.cors(Customizer.witHDefaults())
.addFilterAfter(new CsrfHandlerFilter(), CsrfFilter.class);
return http.build();
}
This will allow you to send the username/password using the Authorization: Basic header. There's no need in this case for you to stand up anything custom. The filter chain will store the security
context in the session, and your Javascript can call endpoints using the JSESSIONID or by resending the username/password creds.
AuthenticationSuccessHandler
If for some reason you want to use form login (what your sample is customizing right now), instead of creating a custom filter, you can configure the existing form login filter with an AuthenticationSuccessHandler that does not redirect:
#Bean
SecurityFilterChain web(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
http
.authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
.mvcMatchers("/api/**").hasRole("AUTH_USER")
.mvcMatchers("/**").permitAll()
)
.formLogin((form) -> form
.successHandler((request, response, authentication) ->
response.setStatusCode(200)
)
)
.cors(Customizer.witHDefaults())
.addFilterAfter(new CsrfHandlerFilter(), CsrfFilter.class);
return http.build();
}
Once again, the filter chain will save the subsequent UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken to the session and issue a JSESSIONID for subsequent requests.